Social Media Is As Harmful As Drugs And Alcohol for Millennials

There are plenty of things that Millennials are hated for by every previous generation. These things include being narcissistic, lazy and entitled. All of these things are harmful for their generation, but perhaps the most harmful thing that is destroying millennials is their addiction to social media.

Previous generations had simple things to get addicted to such as drugs and alcohol. Of course drugs and alcohol are pretty harmful things as well but you will be surprised to find out that
social media is also equally harmful. Social media is also used by the people from previous generations but they always use it responsibly and in their leisure time. Millennials on the other
hand are obsessed with it.

Addiction is the perception about an activity, where you feel you cannot get through your day without it. For example drug addicts will lose their senses and their behavior will change dramatically if they didn’t get their fix for the day. Their life jut revolves around drug intake and everything else means nothing to them.

Image via WNDU 16

You might think that comparing social media addiction to drug addiction is too farfetched, but surprisingly it’s not. Both of these activities provide pleasure which urges you to take more.
When the millennials use social media they expect the people to react to their posts and comments. Every notification and response on the social media releases dopamine in their bodies
which provides pleasure and relaxation to the brain.

The addiction to social media also has harmful affect just like any other addiction. It alters the personality by converting an outgoing and social person into an introvert who would rather
interact with everyone through social media. It also wastes a huge amount of time that would have been useful in doing something productive.

Another harmful effect of this addiction is that it keeps you distracted even when you are not using it. It will keep interfering your mind by bringing thoughts such as, “How many likes
should my post get?” “Did anyone respond to my latest photo?”
Millennials’ obsession with social media also leaves them vulnerable to online exploitation. They get so much involved in displaying every detail of their life minute by minute that they get
used to it. This activity can sometimes also lead them to believe that they can trust people online because everyone seems so friendly there. What they are unaware of is that there might be a
stranger in their followers list who might seriously harm or exploit them.

A recent study revealed that the millennial college students are much more narcissistic when compared with previous generations. Millennials have replaced bad addictions such as alcohols and drugs with another bad addiction known as the social media. But then again, they are the people who grew up in technology driven world and were exposed to social media at a very young age. There is a proper treatment yet to
be found for social media addiction but until then, we can only hope that millennials realize the danger of this addiction and get their lives together and back on track.